Oldal 468 [468]
OCR
RED HILL > EVERAL places in Virginia can claim the honor of having been at one time the residence of Patrick Henry but it was at Red Hill, in Charlotte County, There are two approaches to Red Hill, one over the highlands, the other through the lowgrounds. The road over the ridge, through the woods, leads to what appears to be the front entrance, as the lawn on the north side is shady and inviting, being rather densely planted with a row of cedars along the fence, groups of spreading osage orange trees, several locusts, and hedges of tree-box. But the red clay road, like a deep gash in the hill from which the place was named, continues to the right and follows the contour of the lawn, outlined by a hedge of Japan quince, as far as the front gate, which faces south. The grounds are not extensive and vehicles stop outside the gates. Ihe front yard is as open to the sunlight as the rear is shaded and secluded. Leaving the road, one passes between two stone capped brick posts set in the boxwood hedge which borders the lawn, to uphold a wrought-iron gate. A few feet from this gate stands a sun dial from which extends direct to the house a most remarkable maze of box. In front of the house, towards the east, in one of the circles formed by the tree-box hedge, is a large, scraggly, old locust tree. There was once another on the west under which it is said Patrick Henry sat, on a summer day, with a can of water from a "cool spring’ and a gourd, playing his fiddle and enjoying the view of the valley to the south. A large cedar and a pear tree are the only other trees on the front lawn. [287]
